The Basel Program was the first

manifesto A manifesto is a published declaration of the intentions, motives, or views of the issuer, be it an individual, group, political party or government. A manifesto usually accepts a previously published opinion or public consensus or promotes a ...

of the

Zionist movement Zionism ( he, צִיּוֹנוּת ''Tsiyyonut'' after ''Zion'') is a nationalist movement that espouses the establishment of, and support for a homeland for the Jewish people centered in the area roughly corresponding to what is known in Jew ...

, drafted between 27-30 August 1897 and adopted unanimously at the

First Zionist Congress The First Zionist Congress ( he, הקונגרס הציוני הראשון) was the inaugural congress of the Zionist Organization (ZO) held in Basel (Basle), from August 29 to August 31, 1897. 208 delegates and 26 press correspondents attende ...

Basel , french: link=no, Bâlois(e), it, Basilese , neighboring_municipalities= Allschwil (BL), Hégenheim (FR-68), Binningen (BL), Birsfelden (BL), Bottmingen (BL), Huningue (FR-68), Münchenstein (BL), Muttenz (BL), Reinach (BL), Riehen (BS ...

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

on 30 August 1897. In 1951 it was replaced by the Jerusalem Program.

History

The Basel Program was drafted by a committee elected on Sunday 29 August 1897 comprising

Max Nordau Max Simon Nordau (born ''Simon Maximilian Südfeld''; 29 July 1849 – 23 January 1923) was a Zionist leader, physician, author, and social critic. He was a co-founder of the Zionist Organization together with Theodor Herzl, and president or vic ...

(heading the committee),

Nathan Birnbaum Nathan Birnbaum ( he, נתן בירנבוים; pseudonyms: "Mathias Acher", "Dr. N. Birner", "Mathias Palme", "Anton Skart", "Theodor Schwarz", and "Pantarhei"; 16 May 1864 – 2 April 1937) was an Austrian writer and journalist, Jewish thinker a ...

, Alexander Mintz, Siegmund Rosenberg, Saul Rafael Landau, together with

Hermann Schapira Zvi Hermann Schapira ( he, צבי הרמן שפירא; 1840-1898), or Hermann Hirsch Schapira, was a Lithuanian rabbi, mathematician at the University of Heidelberg, and Zionist. He was the first to suggest founding a Jewish National Fund for ...

and

Max Bodenheimer Max Isidor Bodenheimer ( he, מקס בודנהיימר; 12 March 1865 in Stuttgart – 19 July, 1940 in Jerusalem) was a lawyer and one of the main figures in German Zionism. An associate of Theodor Herzl, he was the first president of the Zioni ...

who were added to the committee on the basis of them having both drafted previous similar programs (including the "Kölner Thesen"). The seven-man committee prepared the Program over three drafting meetings.

Goals

The program set out the goals of the Zionist movement as follows: The original draft did not include the word for "publicly recognized"; this was the only amendment made during the debate at the Congress, and can be seen in the final version with the word öffentlich inserted via a

curly bracket A bracket is either of two tall fore- or back-facing punctuation marks commonly used to isolate a segment of text or data from its surroundings. Typically deployed in symmetric pairs, an individual bracket may be identified as a 'left' or 'r ...

. The amended draft was approved unanimously by the 200-person congress.

References

Bibliography

* * * {{cite book, first=Max, last=Bodenheimer, author-link=Max Bodenheimer, title=Prelude to Israel: The Memoirs of M. I. Bodenheimer, url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015026627060;view=1up;seq=11, year=1963, publisher=T. Yoseloff Pre-1948 Zionist documents 1897 documents German-language works Jews and Judaism in Basel Zionism in Switzerland